UC candidates Matthew S. Coe-Odess ’12 (left) and Tengbo Li ’12 speak about their platform priorities to freshmen last night at a debate in Annenberg.

Undergraduate Council presidential candidate Matt S. Coe-Odess ’12 knocks three times on the door. It’s a holiday—Veteran’s Day—so he says he doesn’t expect many people to answer. But he waits patiently, ten seconds, then fifteen, to see if anyone’s home  in Thayer 205.

Coe-Odess—a tall, blonde psychology concentrator in Kirkland, who is campaigning using only the last name Coe—is a bona fide door-knocking expert. As the chair of the UC Social Life Task Force last year, he knocked on over 600 doors asking students what they wanted to see changed in Harvard’s social scene. Since last Monday, however, he and vice presidential candidate Tengbo Li ’12, an economics concentrator in Pforzheimer, have been knocking on doors asking for something different—votes to support their election to the Council’s two highest offices.

After twenty seconds, Antony S. Bett ’14 opens the door halfway. After Bett skeptically agrees to listen, Coe-Odess launches into his spiel.

Coe-Odess and Li say that their ticket seeks to increase the Council’s responsiveness to the student body and their immediate concerns, with priorities such making social spaces more accessible and fostering school spirit.

FROM THE STUDENTS

Coe-Odess says he joined the UC in his sophomore year because he wanted to see the Council be more in touch with the concerns of the student body. That same commitment to advocating for student voices has inspired his current presidential run.

“I got so tired of hearing all these great student ideas fall by the wayside,” he says. “I thought—‘why can’t I be the one to bring the student voice to the forefront?’”

During his time as Kirkland representative, Coe-Odess has done his part to respond to his constituents’ needs, according to Herbert W. Virgin-Downey ’12. “When I asked him to get vending machines in DeWolfe, he took care of it instantly,” he says.

Coe-Odess continued to emphasize student opinion as the chair of the Social Life Task Force, a position which allowed him to communicate directly with many students about their ideas about social space. These conversations—and the opinions they elicited—were integral in the formation of his and Li’s platform.

“Most of the ideas on our platform come from students,” Coe-Odess says, such as their proposals to extend dining hall hours and institute a teaching fellow “shopping week.”

RESULTS “RIGHT NOW”

Coe-Odess says he and Li want to focus not only on ideas generated by current students, but also on initiatives that will affect for current students.

“I don’t want to waste any amount of energy or money going towards something that’s not going to directly benefit the students on this campus right now,” Coe-Odess says.

Warner J. Wood ’14, a UC representative who has endorsed the ticket, says he approves of Coe-Odess’s commitment to action.

“I’m so sick of the UC talking,” Wood said. “I want to see a UC that gets stuff done, that’s proactive.”